All we can do is make the next right choice
Sometimes, that choice is easy
Sometimes it is the hardest thing you can do
What do you do when you get to the end of the map
Where do you go when you can’t go back
And forward is so uncertain
You know there is something beyond
But you don’t know what it looks like
How hard it’s going to be
Because there’s no way it can be easy
The unknown is rarely easy
-gws
Rage is dark rust red like clotted blood
Balled fists and hot tears
White hot like molten iron
Sharp and vicious as a cooled blade
Shrill keening and worn out sobs
Forged into quiet, constantly simmering fury
Long, silent, anguished screams into pillows
And inside lonely vehicles at 60 miles per hour
With the music turned up loud to drown out the ragged
Sound shaking free of its mooring
Now a million dancing embers
Just waiting for the right bluster to ignite again
-gws
Do I exist in the space between your thoughts
Am I squeezed in as an annotation to your chaos
Do I fit in the emptiness between your heartbeats
Or the space between your breaths
Am I shoved into the shadowed alcoves of your mind
All I know is it’s dark and apocalyptic here
Where ever here is
-gws
When my heart is heavy I turn to you
I know you are there
waiting for me with open arms
offering comfort, love, serenity
I know you cannot remove my trials
I also know that you can help lighten the load by taking my tears
my sorrows
my angers, resentments, and animosities
you do not judge me for my smallness or my pettiness
you do not scold me for not making the next right choice
you love me
you hold my hurt like a mother does a child and kiss it away
the injury remains, but the sting is less
because your love is a salve like no other
you gift me with words and inspiration
so that I can bare my soul’s truth into the light
and start to let it go so that I am not transfigured
by my own anger and sorrow
you take my heartache and hand me joy
and you do it while reminding me that every day’s sunset
makes way for the next morning’s dawn where hope is born anew
-gws
Words stolen from my throat before my mouth gives them shape and purpose
Volumptous thoughts sucked dry of all of their sweet volume like withered grapes on the vine
Black storm clouds ripple my calm waters, sending me reeling with frustration
Being asked to be less
Say less
Need less
Take less space
I am twisted, muted, and bound inside myself
Trying to survive loving you
With your barbed wire, landmines, arrows, blades, and poisons
Maybe one day you’ll stop listening to your own voice long enough to hear mine
Or all you will hear is the silence that signifies my absence
-gws
Run unabashed though the tall grass
The wind tossing your wild hair in all directions
And brambles tearing at your hems
Laugh from deep in your belly
With your mouth wide open
And your head thrown back
Let starlight be the catchlights of your eyes
While the moon kisses your skin with dew
And soft, turned soil the carpet under your feet
Rage like a bolt of lightening from a black sky
And let your fury be quenched in the soft, summer rain of your tears
Love so deeply and completely that fingerprints are left on your soul
Dance to the drumbeat of your heart
Sing the song you have been carrying within you your whole life
And don’t give a single damn who hears you
Write your story with its angsty-teen-superhero, rom-com, horror film moments,
Coming of ages and chapter endings
Paint your canvas in all the vivid colors of your joy
And all of the pastels of your sorrows
Close your eyes and hum your gratitude for being who you are
And exactly who you are supposed to be
-gws
I am made of witchy fire and Goddess light
I dance with fairies and sing down the rain
My soul grows wild with roses, sandalwood and sage
I am the storm and the calm
I am the raging wildfire and the tumultuous ocean
I am the sweet-smelling meadow and the forest cathedral
I am rooted in soft, sweet earth
I am dancing with twinkling starlight
I am the chasing wind in the trees
I am a cherished daughter of the Universe
I am a force of nature
-gws
An “I-statement” focuses on your own feelings and experiences. It does not focus on your perspective of what the other person has done or failed to do.
Office of the Boston University Ombuds
I am human
I am exhausted
I have a right to say no
I am not harming others when I am being my authentic self
I am an ally not an enemy
I do not want to be a vessel for holding pain that is not my own
I need to be treated respectfully
-gws
May I meet today with grace.
May I treat myself with love and patience.
May I feel with certainty that I am enough this day and everyday.
-gws
I spill ink in controlled rivulets across an unstained page, setting down with curves and flourishes the tangled, unintelligible, intangible emotional illiteracies of my mind now transmuted into words and phrases, provoked into life, and now chained irrevocably into place by pen, hand, and mind.
-gws
